“Tormented Love” is Book 3 in “The True Love Series. To gain maximum enjoyment, it’s recommended the books are read in order.When Ben and Tessa return from their holiday to New Zealand without Jayden, Ben’s teenage son, Tessa is concerned that Ben might slip back into depression, especially when Jayden won’t even answer their phone calls or texts. They know they should trust God to bring Jayden … bring Jayden home, but how do they live in the meantime? Reminders of him are everywhere. A visit to Stephanie, Tessa’s best friend, gives Tessa an idea that she believes is from God, and will eventually take her and Ben half-way around the globe. But will it help bring Jayden back?
Meanwhile, surprises are in store for Jayden as he discovers all is not quite as rosy as his mother had promised, but can he admit he’s made a mistake and return home to his father and Tessa? And will the foundational morality drummed into him by his father hold firm when tested by new friends who don’t hold the same values?
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4 stars
I have purchased the 10 book Australian based clean boxset titled The True Love and Precious Love Series Boxset: A Christian Romance by Juliette Duncan and this review was given freely.
The 10 part saga of the Williams family touches on many serious topics that challenge ones faith and health but also provides a picture of the growth, love and comfort that can be found when walking with God. Vivid descriptions are interwoven between heartfelt prayers, family drama and portions of scripture. Includes the titles Tender Love,Tested Love,Tormented Love,Triumphant Love, Forever Cherished,Forever Faithful,Forever His,Unchained,True Love at Christmas,Promises of Love, and A Time to Treasure: Prologue
**Tender Love:
A little ironic. By a twist of fate, Tessa’s counselor roommate Stephanie and two puppies bring veterinarian Tessa Scott and recently divorced single father and accountant Ben Williams together. Contains the serious topics of depression, substance abuse, breaching patient confidentiality and abandonment which are tempered by a strong faith in God.
**Tested Love:
The continued saga of the Williams family is a tense one filled with the sad undercurrents of jealousy,miscarriage, suicide, injuries and Jayden’s secret relationship with his mother Kathryn in Florida, USA.
Newly weds Tessa and Ben Williams struggle with adjusting to each, a new home,a new church family, a new job and mercurial 14 year old Jayden who is testing the waters to learn his place in the new family while struggling with the loss of his old schedule and security.
**Tormented Love:
This installment of the Williams family saga is transcontinental and features a “the grass is not always greener”undertone complicated by peer pressure and both drug and physical abuse but ending on a hopeful note.
Tessa and Ben join her brother Elliot on a mission trip to Ecuador in hopes of reconnecting in both Faith and love while distracting themselves concerning Jayden’s cutting all contact and going to live with his needy and superficial mother Katryn in the USA.
**Triumphant Love:
This final prayer filled complex sequel of the Williams saga features the serious topics of the trials of an unplanned single teen pregnancy, Tessa’s pregnancy scare, substance abuse, murder, the threat of Jayden’s deportation and touches on elder memory loss but is balanced by a renewal of Faith, the loving aide of two wonderful Christian families and a happy Williams family reunion.
After being gone for a year, Montana resident Jayden finds both his Faith in God and love for Angie Morgan deepening, his homesickness for his father and Tessa growing, and his sense of obligation to his abused mother lessening.
**Forever Cherished:
A touch of irony with a fair amount of drama. This prayer filled sequel features the trials and rewards of a new baby, the beginnings of the Williams family’s Misty Morn Christian retreat where Tessa helps her first lodger, depression and suicide troubled Leah Maloney, find Leah’s first love and child, relates Tessa’s father’s progressing dementia and provides an event filled father-son camping trip for Ben and Jayden.
**Forever Faithful:
A second chance at love story where bad things happen to good people but ultimately ends happily with a wedding for the Williams family.
After college veterinary student and Christian youth group leader Jayden is assaulted and receives a life threatening injury from 19 year old Troy Barrett whose drink was spiked, Angie flies to Australia to be by his side only to be followed by her controlling and jealous boyfriend Cole.
**Forever His:
A prayer filled sequel with a nice recap and the story of newlyweds Jayden and Angie Williams’s adjustment to each other as they travel and witness. Contains picturesque descriptions of the places and the people Jayden and Angie see during their year long honeymoon trip around the world but also contains Ben and Angie struggles over how to take care of her aging parents and how Ben’s boss Brad being investigated for embezzlement will affect them.
**Unchained:
A poignant companion novel to the Williams family saga starting the day well to do stay at home mom Sally Richardson finds out she is penniless because of her accountant husband Brad’s gambling addiction and embezzling. This is a prayer filled novella depicting a family’s struggle with addiction, communication and self image as they build a closer relationship with both God and each other.
Can be read as a standalone but best if read in sequence.
**True Love at Christmas:
Taking place around the time Tessa and Ben go on their first mission trip, this is a Christmas companion novel to the Williams family saga featuring the true meaning of Christmas, a reaffirmation of Faith, veterinarian Harrison Smith’s romance with Zoe Taylor and, the Christmas surprise he and his siblings give their parents.
**Promises of Love:
An emotion packed continuation of True Love at Christmas laced heavily with the theme of loss but ends happily. Promises of Love finds the newly engaged Zoe Taylor and Harrison Smith spending Christmas day with Zoe’s extended family and her financially struggling parents, Harrison hoping for a short engagement while Zoe is torn trying to figure out how to make everyone happy while dealing with doubts concerning her relationship with the no-Christian Harrison, her grandmother’s sudden illness and with the sudden return of her high school boyfriend Spencer.
**A Time to Treasure: Prologue: Not read
Tormented? Yes, definitely. Tortured, painful, heartbreaking? Yes to all. “No-one gets through life on this side of heaven unscathed.” How true this is and how well documented it is in this book, as well as Christian perspectives on it and various ways of dealing with it. Our same amazing characters from the first two books are here in the storms of life.
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.